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Hurricane Laura Forecast to Hit Gulf Coast as Category 4 Storm; Two Killed, One Wounded During 3rd Night of Protests in Kenosha, WI; State Rep. David Bowen (D-WI) Discusses Protests & Shootings at Kenosha Protest; Judge Mark Henry (R-Galveston County) Discusses Evacuations Under Way Ahead of Hurricane Laura. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 26, 2020 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[11:00:12]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining me this hour.

Two major stories we are tracking right now. Chaos on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, first off.

We want to warn you that what we are about to show you some of this video you may find disturbing.

People are searching for a man seen in videos carrying a long gun after two people were shot and killed overnight in the midst of protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. A third person was injured, as well.

Still this morning, we are waiting for updates from Kenosha police and the sheriff about what you are seeing in this video right now, and eyewitnesses say were people being shot on the street in Kenosha.

The sheriff said last night that there has been a group of vigilantes -- he calls a militia -- that have been armed and patrolling the streets for days, though the sheriff isn't saying if there's a connection here. A lot of questions.

Protests in Kenosha have been happening since Sunday after police shot Jacob Blake at least seven times in the back.

Wisconsin's governor has declared a state of emergency and has called in 250 members of the National Guard to assist. The county is asking for 1,500.

The big question now is: What happens today? We will have much more on that in just a moment.

But we are also tracking Hurricane Laura, which is barreling toward the gulf coast right now. It's now a category 3 storm and is expected to intensify even more before making landfall overnight tonight. Hurricane warnings are in effect for big parts of Texas and Louisiana

with more than 1.5 million people under evacuation orders.

All of this in the midst, of course, of the coronavirus pandemic.

So let's start right there. CNN's Chad Myers is tracking the storm. He is joining me right now.

Chad, the National Hurricane Center put out their latest forecast. What are you seeing now?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. The forecasts come out four times a day, 11:00, 5:00, 11:00, 5:00.

And the 11:00 advisory is in and it is not good. The storm is 125 miles per hour now. And it is forecast to get to 145. And it's going to do that offshore and then move onshore and move right over Lake Charles.

It's going to put what the Hurricane Center is calling an un- survivable storm surge under the barrier islands. If you live there, you know where you are, it's time to go.

We had a 15 or 20-foot storm surge in the forecast earlier this week because we knew this was going to be a big storm and now it's here. This is the forecast.

Here comes the radar and here comes the rain. It will come onshore. Likely the eye wall comes sometime around 1:00 overnight.

But the northern eye wall and the hurricane conditions will get there much earlier than that, probably 8:00 at night.

There will be no way to get out at that point. If you need to leave, you need to leave now.

Look at the Lake Charles wind speed. That's the wind gust, 127. That's the forecast wind gust as the storm comes onshore. And the wall of water will push to the north.

That storm surge over to these islands, like Holly Beach and Calcasieu. There might not be much left in a lot of these places. A lot of what we saw in Waveland and Bay City and even Biloxi when we talk about the Katrina storm surge, which was 26 feet. And that's what we're looking at here, a 20-foot storm surge.

See that number? 10 to 15? That's the old number. Right in the middle, 15 to 20 feet of water. And there are waves out there, Kate, that are 35 feet high moving over these islands.

I can't stress this enough. I know you think you can handle it and a lot of people say, oh, batten down the hatches, but you need to go. Somewhere in the better part of a million people need to leave.

Run from the water and hide from the wind. If that was your water forecast, you need to go. BOLDUAN: I'll be talking to someone from Galveston, Texas, Galveston

County in just a minute. From that map you showed, that is terrifying what they will be looking at soon, Chad.

Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: Chad is tracking it and we'll be checking back with him in a little bit.

Back now to Wisconsin. A violent and deadly night in Kenosha. Two people are dead and another person is injured after a shooting overnight that, quite frankly, still hasn't been explained. And at least right now, the gunman is thought to still be on the loose.

I'll warn you once again, this video we're about to show you may find disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SCREAMING)

(SHOTS FIRED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh (EXPLETIVE DELETED). He shot that guy in the stomach!

(SCREAMING)

(SHOTS FIRED)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

People are getting shot around us. People are just getting shot, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Oh, gosh. You can hear the gun fire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:05:05]

BOLDUAN: You can hear the gun fire very clearly. You can hear the fear in people's voices, the screams for help. People being shot all around them, he's saying.

Police say that they're investigating what happened and if this was a result of a clash between protesters and people that the sheriff is describing as a vigilante group. They don't know or have not said yet.

Here is another. We'll show you video of the shooting from a different angle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUN FIRE)

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: This -- you can hear the gun fire right there and this is also moments after. You can see police moving in with armored vehicles and talking about shots have been fired.

Joining me right now is Tony Atkins, a reporter from WTMJ, in Wisconsin, who recorded that last video that we just showed you last night.

Tony, thanks for jumping on.

Can you just describe what you saw and heard and what it was like last night when it was happening?

TONY ATKINS, REPORTER, WTMJ-4: That's right, Kate. Thanks for having me on.

Last night, as you can imagine, it was a very tense night. Most of the action took place along the road, Sheridan. Protesters clashed with police. Tear gas was deployed, as we've seen on previous nights. That tear gas was deployed as officers pushed the protesters south down Sheridan.

Now, south on Sheridan, there are a number of businesses. One thing we've noticed is that there were groups on Facebook saying they would armor up and protect businesses.

Just about every business in the downtown Kenosha area was boarded up.

And as they approached a gas station near 63rd, I believe, and Sheridan, that's where we noticed some infighting between civilian groups. And we saw what appeared to be members of the militia, that the vigilante group, as the police describe, clashing with some protesters.

There was one moment where I noticed that a protester was pushed down by a member of the group. Another protester defended her. A gun was pulled out. At that moment, I think, shots were going to be fired at some point. Police again deployed tear gas.

Protesters then moved further south down Sheridan as we were reporting and recording that video.

And the final thing you hear is the shots being fired. And then, at that moment, we heard the armored vehicles, people in the armored vehicles saying that shots were fired. And we were maybe two blocks north of where that incident happened. BOLDUAN: Tony, you've been on the street. You've been covering these

protests as they've been playing out. I've been following on Twitter on it. You talked about these vigilantes and militia groups. You've seen these people.

Are you getting a better sense of who these people are that are out that the sheriff says have been out patrolling, armed? Do you think -- do you have any sense if they're from town, coming in from out of town?

ATKINS: You know, it's really interesting. I was working with a security detail last night and one of the things we did notice were some Illinois plates. Illinois and Kenosha are back-to-back.

So it's really kind of hard to tell if they were coming in from out of town.

We saw, as you see with many of these protesters or folks are coming in from Minnesota or folks are coming in from Indiana. You will see the rumors on social media.

One thing I can say, I saw Illinois plates from some folks defending a tire shop where a car was set on fire. But right now, you know, it's really hard to say.

I think tonight, as we head back out there, it would be interesting to speak to some of those people and see what they're here for. Obviously, they mentioned protecting businesses. Where they come from.

And we'll definitely be keeping our ear to the ground about this group and pushing for more details about the person responsible for that shooting that we just saw and why the police describe it as a vigilante.

BOLDUAN: If the person is still on the loose. You even posted video of when police located a gun that was kind of off on the sidewalk as you were describing.

Tony, thank you very much for coming on. Thank you for your reporting. Please be safe. We will be watching as you're out there tonight again.

Thank you very much.

Let's get over to CNN's Sara Sidner. She is also on the ground in Kenosha.

Sara, you've done an amazing job trying to paint a picture of what happened last night. And it was clearly chaos from all of the videos that are out there. And a lot of speculation concerning who caused it.

What is the latest that you can tell us? What are you hearing?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So here's a couple of things. I talked to someone who has seen this unfold overnight and who is from this community and they talked about a couple of things.

[11:09:59]

One, this night was different from the other past two nights where it's been people who were protesting in the name of Jacob Blake, protesting against police. Much of that happening here and just a few streets down.

This was different because interjected into these protests were people who came in who were wearing Army-type garb, or military type garb.

People were saying they were surrounding a business or two, particularly gas stations, who were trying to act as if they were law enforcement, who were questioning people as if they were law enforcement.

We heard from this gentleman that I spoke to, who was from here in Kenosha, that many of them looked like members of militias who had shown up from out of town, who said they were here to protect businesses.

And so what you were seeing is this confluence of groups that are now targeting Kenosha.

And now many residents are very, very, very concerned that this is going to blow up into something more violent.

And, indeed, it did overnight. Two people shot and killed and a third who was injured.

And you know, when you look at the scenario, when you see the video of one of these men, a white man who has a long gun, it's strapped across his chest and he's walking down the street.

He fires at someone as they are trying to grab him. They are yelling, "He just shot someone, he just shot someone." And it appears they are trying to apprehend him, according to one of the men who witnessed this.

And then you see him fire his gun at point-blank range at two different people. He definitely hits one because that person crumples to the ground.

The concern here, when residents see that this man was able to walk past not one, but three different law enforcement officers, who were in vehicles who passed him by, while he's walking with his long gun and his hands up.

There's a lot of concern that these folks are going to create a whole new violent scenario here in Kenosha.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Sara, thank you for being there. I really appreciate it.

Joining me now is Wisconsin State Representatives David Bowen. He was at the protests in Kenosha.

Thank you for coming on.

What do you say about what happened last night?

STATE REP. DAVID BOWEN (D-WI): This is very clear this is exhibit B of why we need transformation in this system. You clearly have these hate groups, these violent hate groups coming across the border.

What good are police departments and law enforcement if they aren't keeping track of these groups that seek to not peacefully do whatever they like to get their message across or doing anything like that?

They're here to cause trouble. And they're here to actually hurt people. And that's what they did last night.

Exhibit A was Jacob Blake actually being hurt and made a problem when he actually was stepping up to prevent violence.

And that is why we need to translate this dramatically and why police departments and law enforcement agencies need to be operating in a different way in their relationships with communities so that communities can lead to peace and to lead the initiatives to really keep public safety in their communities in a different way.

BOLDUAN: And I'm curious. You talk about these people coming in from across the border and hate groups. I know there's a lot of reporting -- Sara Sidner has done reporting on CNN with militia groups and vigilante groups and their ties to white supremacy over reporting that she's done.

What do you know about the folks that have been on the ground in Kenosha? What are -- what we heard from Tony Atkins was that they say that they're there to protect businesses.

What did you see or what are you hearing in your capacity?

BOWEN: Well, what I saw last night was a number of individuals running around in pickup trucks that clearly were white supremacists. They were armed.

They were destroying property. They were vandalizing vehicles, including mine, and including other protesters. They were there to agitate and to hurt protesters.

And you know, I have people asking me, why go back out there or why keep protesting. Because we cannot allow anyone to take away our constitutional right to transform this system and to advocate for what it needs to change into.

We know that law enforcement agencies, for the most part, are there and they're responding to calls for service or they're making calls for service of their own.

But the culture in policing right now is so toxic that it's actually destroying communities. And it's hurting people. And it's targeting the wrong folks.

You don't target protesters. You should be targeting these folks. A clearly, no one was keeping a track of what they were doing.

BOLDUAN: You mention it, but there are these two very disturbing images, right, that we have coming out. At least the facts, as we know them that are known publicly right now.

[11:15:02]

You have what looks like a white a man walking around with a long gun, shooting people in the streets of Kenosha. And we think at least right now, not in the hands of police.

And then you have Jacob Blake shot in the back by police as he's opening his car door. His children are in the car. The details of this, of course, matter. We say that caveat, of course.

But with just those basic fact, what does it is a to you? What needs to happen right now in your state, in your area?

BOWEN: Immediately, we need lawmakers to stop objecting and stop obstructing the change we need to see. The change that people are advocating for.

This is not an us-versus-them scenario. This is about the future we all deserve and making sure that we are in a place to advocate for communities that will define public safety and institute it in a completely different way, transform it.

And it means that we have to take the power from the people who have been controlling this system of public safety, where, to them, it includes hurting people. It includes targeting and harassing people of color, and especially the black community here in Wisconsin.

People are stepping up and they don't want to take that anymore. And they don't believe that we can pass this on to our children. And they believe that we can do this now. And that does scare people.

That is at the heart of this. We need lawmakers and my colleagues in the state assembly to listen to the pleas for change.

And the more that they obstruct it, the more that they are causing the hate, the division and the violence.

BOLDUAN: As that continues, in the most immediate, I will say I am surprised that there hasn't been an update today or a press conference by police or the sheriff about what they're doing right now to try to calm things down.

As Jacob Blake's mother has called for, to calm things down. We look forward to getting an update from them.

Wisconsin State Rep. --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: -- really appreciate it. David, thank you for coming on. Appreciate it.

Coming up for us, much more on Hurricane Laura. Heading straight toward Texas and Louisiana. More than a million people have been ordered to evacuate. We'll go live to Galveston, Texas, for the very latest. That'll come up next.

Plus, a major change from the CDC on its testing guidelines. A change without explanation. What is going on here and why? It has upset so many experts.

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[11:21:55]

BOLDUAN: With Hurricane Laura bearing down on the gulf coast, hundreds of thousands of people are in the threat zone. Galveston, Texas, issued a mandatory evacuation order Tuesday for all 50,000-some residents on the island. The city facing a serious threat from the storm's path right now.

Joining me now over the phone for the very latest is Galveston County Judge Mark Henry.

Judge, can you hear me?

JUDGE MARK HENRY (R-GALVESTON COUNTY-TX) (via telephone): I can hear you fine.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for taking the time to jump on the phone.

Things are moving pretty quickly there. How are evacuations going in Galveston and other parts of the conte?

HENRY: It appears evacuations are going very well. It appears the citizens have listened to our cautions and have evacuated. We've had no significant issues.

I'm more responsible for all of the peninsula, which is an unincorporated part of the county, which lies just outside of the cone of the path of the hurricane.

BOLDUAN: What's your biggest concern right now?

HENRY: Our biggest concern is that this is a powerful storm and hurricanes are notorious for making last-minute changes that no one predicted and we have very little time to react should that happen now.

So we've been encouraging preparedness and evacuation for the last two days and hope that that is going to be good enough if the hurricane stays on the path that it's on.

BOLDUAN: I heard you say that services were shutting down earlier than you were anticipating. Why is that? What does this mean? What should I tell folks? HENRY: The service that I was referring to is the ferry service. The

ferry connects all of our peninsula to Galveston Island. It's run by the state of Texas.

They have criteria for when it becomes too dangerous to operate. They shut down at 11:30 last night and they had not met that criteria.

That's something I had not planned on occurring that early. And it left the peninsula with only one way out of the peninsula, which is going directly toward the storm to the east.

BOLDUAN: That spells a lot of trouble if people aren't moving.

What is your message for folks in Galveston County who have been obviously told to evacuate, but if they choose to stay, as we often hear when storms are approaching?

HENRY: Certainly. My message is, if you've been put in a mandatory evacuation zone, please evacuate. We're not doing that because it's anything other than the right choice to make. We are concerned about life safety and property damage.

So if you're on the peninsula, especially, please evacuate.

If you're in other areas, you might be able to stay where you are. We're going to have significant impacts.

And further west in the county, it's not going to be as traumatic. And I don't think evacuation orders have been ordered in the western part of the county.

BOLDUAN: All of this is happening in the midst of the pandemic. And that will change how people evacuate, how people can evacuate, and how you respond afterwards.

Judge, we'll stay close to you. Good luck over the next few hours, that's for sure. Appreciate your time.

HENRY: Thank you. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you very much.

[11:24:53]

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, the CDC making a major change to its guidance on who should get tested for coronavirus. It's a move that's puzzling many doctors. So why is this change coming now?

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[11:30:00]

BOLDUAN: Without any explanation, the CDC has made several changes to their COVID guidelines. And it's confusing and alarming many.

One major change has to do with testing.